Comparing science scores at Connecticut schools over time

Data Editor

Connecticut’s standardized test scores for the last school year were released last week, and improvement was hard to track in math and English literacy because students switched to Smarter Balanced Assessments for the first time.

However, for science, student performance continued to be measured with the Connecticut Academic Performance Test and the Connecticut Mastery Test.

So even though we can’t say if a school or district has improved in math or English, we can for science.

The high schools that saw the biggest drop in science scores between 2014 and 2015 were Amistad Academy in New Haven, Global Experience Magnet in Bloomfield, the Zoological School in Bridgeport, and Pathways to Tech Magnet in East Hartford.

The districts with the largest declines were Thomaston and Windham.

The schools with the largest improvement between 2014 and 2015 were the Bridge Academy in Bridgeport, Public Safety Academy in Enfield, Act Magnet School in Willimantic, and the Eng-Science University Magnet in New Haven.

Hamden was one of the school districts that saw the largest average increase in scores.

Bolton High School, Coventry High School, and Regional School District 17 in Haddam and Killingworth are among the few schools that have improved every year since 2011.

For 8th grade scores, East Rock Community Magnet in New Haven, Simpson-Waverly School in Hartford, and Hooker School in Bridgeport improved the most between 2014 and 2015.

On the other end of the spectrum, Bridgeport’s Barnum School and Hartford’s M.D. Fox Compact School saw the largest declines in percent between 2014 and 2015.

Andrew is a data editor at TrendCT.org and the Connecticut Mirror. He teaches data visualization at Central Connecticut State University as well intro to data journalism at Wesleyan University as a Koeppel Fellow.
He was a founding producer of The Boston Globe's Data Desk where he used a variety of methods to visualize or tell stories with data. Andrew also was an online producer at The Virginian-Pilot and a staff writer at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He’s a Metpro Fellow, a Chips Quinn Scholar, and a graduate of the University of Texas.